President Barack Obama bestows the Medal of Honor on retired Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha for conspicuous gallantry, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Romesha's leadership during a daylong attack by hundreds of fighters on Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan led to award. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

In this Jan. 16, 2013 file photo Clint Romesha, a North Dakota veteran set to receive the Medal of Honor for courageous action during a 13-hour firefight in Afghanistan, right, speaks at a news conference alongside his wife, Tammy, Wednesday in Minot, N.D. Romesha, 31, will receive the nation's highest military decoration for valor at the White House on Feb. 11. (AP Photo/The Minot Daily News, Eloise Ogden)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has bestowed the Medal of Honor upon an Army veteran for his courageous leadership during a daylong firefight in Afghanistan.

Obama presented the medal to former Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha on Monday in a White House ceremony attended by the military’s top leaders and former Medal of Honor recipients.

Obama recounted in detail the dramatic 2009 battle at an outpost in the mountains near the Pakistan border where U.S. troops were far outnumbered. Romesha was peppered with shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade but fought through his wounds.

Guests at the ceremony wept as Obama read the names of eight Americans who died in the firefight. Obama says U.S. troops fight courageously for freedom, for their country and for their families, but also to keep their fellow troops safe.

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